Gabhaim buíochas leis an bPáirtí an Lucht Oibre. This highlights what many families are experiencing right now. Many people have been in contact with me. Even today, I met parents who were under enormous pressure because of the cost of uniforms, books, transport and school activities. Many families are being told that they must now spend hundreds of euro on a Chromebook, laptop or other digital asset, and it is still not something that they can afford. Over recent weeks, one parent told me that their school insisted that these were essential learning tools for every student because of the new leaving certificate curriculum, yet parliamentary questions that I submitted confirmed that there is no departmental requirement for students to have a personal digital device at either junior or leaving certificate level. That contradiction leaves parents and students whom I represent caught in a middle ground. On one hand, the Department is saying they are not mandatory and, on the other, schools are telling parents that they must purchase one. I understand that the Minister of State was in north Dublin. I thank him for coming out to those schools, but parents need to be fully consulted about any decision and schools should avoid unnecessary costs where possible. Those are sensible principles. They are not always being reflected in practice. Parents are also raising legitimate concerns with me and the Department about where schools require students to purchase devices through a single supplier. They deserve to know how that supplier was selected, whether public procurement guidance has been followed and why students cannot use an equivalent device that they may already own. Technology undoubtedly has an important role in education. I do not dispute that fact. I came through education while the technology was developing. However, access to education or a curriculum should never depend on a family's ability to spend several hundreds of euro on a particular device. If the Department's position is that personal devices are not mandatory, then policy should be applied consistently across Ireland, as parents deserve clarity and no young people should feel excluded from education because of the cost of a laptop.

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